Laurence Chaderton (''c''. September 1536 – 13 November 1640) was an English
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
, the first Master of
Emmanuel College, Cambridge and one of the translators of the
King James Version of the Bible.
Life
Chaderton was born in
Lees,
or else
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester.
...
,
[.] both near
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
, England, probably during September 1536, a son of Thomas Chaderton, a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. His birth preceded the institution of
parish baptism registers in England in 1538.
Under the tuition of
Laurence Vaux, a Roman Catholic priest, he became an able scholar. In 1564 he entered
Christ's College, Cambridge, where, after a short time, he formally adopted the Reformed doctrines and was in consequence disinherited by his father. In 1567 he was elected a fellow of his college, and subsequently was chosen lecturer of
St Clement's Church, Cambridge, where he preached to admiring audiences for many years. He married Cecily Culverwell, which entailed giving up his fellowship.
[Francis J. Bremer, Tom Webster, ''Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia'' (2006), p. 51.]
He was a man of moderate, puritan views, though numbering among his friends some of the greatest Puritan preachers and divines like
Thomas Cartwright,
Richard Greenham,
Richard Rogers, and
William Perkins. So great was his reputation that when Sir
Walter Mildmay
Sir Walter Mildmay (bef. 1523 – 31 May 1589) was a statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I, and founded Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Origins
He was born at Moulsham in Essex, the fourth and youngest son of ...
,
Chancellor of the Exchequer to
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
, founded
Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1584, he chose Chaderton for the first master, and on his expressing some reluctance, declared that if he would not accept the office the foundation should not go on.
In 1604 Chaderton was appointed one of the four divines for managing the cause of the Puritans at the
Hampton Court Conference. He was also among the translators of the
King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
of the Bible. In 1578 he had taken the degree of
B.D., and in 1613 he was created
D.D. At this period he made provision for twelve fellows and above forty scholars in Emmanuel College. Fearing that he might have a successor who held
Arminian doctrines, he resigned the mastership in favour of
John Preston in 1622, but survived him, and lived also to see the college presided over successively by
William Sancroft
William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indul ...
and
Richard Holdsworth. He died at the age of about 104, preserving his bodily and mental faculties to the end.
Works
Chaderton published a sermon preached at
St Paul's Cross
St Paul's Cross (alternative spellings – "Powles Crosse") was a preaching cross and open-air pulpit in the grounds of Old St Paul's Cathedral, City of London. It was the most important public pulpit in Tudor and early Stuart England, and ma ...
about 1580, and a treatise of his ''On Justification'' was printed by
Anthony Thysius, professor of divinity at
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
. Some other works by him on theological subjects remain in manuscript (as of 1911).
References
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Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaderton, Laurence
1530s births
1640 deaths
English centenarians
Masters of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Men centenarians
People from Lees, Greater Manchester
People from Chadderton
16th-century English Puritan ministers
Translators of the King James Version
17th-century English clergy
16th-century Anglican theologians
17th-century Anglican theologians